The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to random access procedures under coverage limitations.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
In some cases, a UE—e.g., a machine type communications (MTC) device or a low complexity wireless device—may communicate with a wireless network using coverage enhancement (CE) techniques such as increased repetition of information. This may enable a UE to improve the reliability of a communication link. However, a UE using CE techniques may not be coordinated with the network regarding which CE level or configuration will be used prior to performing an access procedure. This may result in less reliable communications during the access procedure, which may cause disruptions or delay in the establishing the communication link.